Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP)

BAGUIO CITY—From October 26-28, 2012 various concerned organizations conducted an independent environmental and social investigatory mission (EIM) on the Philex Tailings Dam 3 Failure in Benguet and Pangasinan. The EIM aims to test water and silt samples obtained from various sites for heavy metals present, document effects and impact to lowland communities in Pangasinan.

On the night of August 1, as the typhoons Ferdie and Gener blew in Luzon, the Tailings Pond 3 of Philex Mining Corporation for the Padcal mines operations in Itogon, Benguet collapsed. It incurred a major breach in the lower portion of its Penstock A. Tailings Pond 3, or TP3, is the sole facility that impounds all of the waste generated by the mining operations.

BAGUIO CITY—In a media briefing today the Cordillera Peoples Alliance and Amianan Salakniban called for the immediate decommissioning of Philex’s Tailings Pond 3, and for rehabilitation and just compensation be urgently carried out for affected communities like Itogon, Tuba, and communities downstream of the Agno River, such as Pangasinan, which hosts the San Roque Dam.

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines is holding a three-day Mining Conference and Exhibition at the Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City. The event, attended by government officials and representatives of local and foreign mining corporations were apparently oblivious to the barrage of protesters outside the five-star hotel this morning.

Indigenous peoples from various tribes and communities marched to Mendiola today, denouncing the attacks against the life and rights of indigenous peoples under the Aquino administration. “Two years under Aquino has spelt unmeasured suffering for indigenous peoples. We have experienced the worse blows to our collective and civil human rights under his government,” Piya Macliing Malayao, Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas spokeswoman claimed. “Policies, especially that of mining, energy, and security have dealt lethal blows to our people.”

Indigenous peoples' groups and environmental activists demonstrated at the gates of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) today, in response to the new mining policy released today by Malacanang.

The mining policy was long-anticipated by the groups, as it had been in the pipelines since early this year.

No one values the Earth than the indigenous peoples, says Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas spokesperson, Piya Macliing Malayao. “Indigenous peoples find their identity in the earth, in nature, and in their ancestral lands. The Earth Day is a celebration of our being a people. What destroys the earth destroys us as indigenous people,” she added.

Malayao is a Bontoc Igorot from Mountain Province.

KAMP and progressive indigenous peoples’ partylist KATRIBU Partylist highlighted the Earth Day celebrations with the “Thousand Streamer Campaign” a streamer-hanging protest against “destructive, large-scale mining.”

“The Thousand Streamer Campaign is the people’s expression of opposition to the increasing sell-out of our mineral resources to large-scale mining companies. Undeniably, large-scale mining is a large toll on the environment,” Malayao claimed. “On Earth Day, it is only fitting that we demand the halt on Mother Earth’s biggest foe.”

Indigenous peoples’ organization Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) led a national protest today in commemoration of the 17th year promulgation of the Mining Act of 1995.

“The past 17 years has spelt the massive sellout of ancestral lands to transnational mining corporations, the destruction of the environment, and the plunder of our national patrimony,” Piya Macliing Malayao, KAMP spokesperson said.